Editorial: Not by design

Tuesday

Dec 29, 2009 at 12:01 AM

Gainesville officials are contemplating a redesign of the downtown plaza deemed underutilized and unattractive to the general public.

Gainesville officials are contemplating a redesign of the downtown plaza deemed underutilized and unattractive to the general public. Two points ought to be made in that regard.Yes, the physical design of the plaza is sterile and uninviting. As a practical matter it works only as a venue for community concerts and special events like festivals and farmers markets. It could no doubt be redesigned as a greener, more inviting, more people-friendly space.But one reason many people avoid the plaza has less to do with its design than the fact that they don't feel safe there except during crowded organized events. For the most part, the plaza is a permanent gathering place for the homeless — or for people who may not be homeless but who appear to suffer from substance abuse and related problems. That advocacy groups use the plaza as an outdoor soup kitchen further serves to limit the public appeal of the plaza. A community discussion about the downtown plaza is past due, and some thoughtful comments and suggestions about the plaza's future have already been made on The Sun's Virtual Town Hall Meeting blog (http://townhall.blogs.gainesville.com/10106/redesign-the-downtown-plaza).But it ought to be clear from the outset that what ails the plaza is not strictly a design flaw, but a social challenge as well. The plaza's underutilization is symptomatic of the fact that downtown Gainesville still shoulders a disproportionate burden of the broader community's homelessness problem.

A stressful weekendUrban Meyer's sudden announcement that he would step down as head Gator football coach, followed by his equally abrupt announcement that he would, instead, take a leave of absence, touched off a weekend media frenzy and likely left Gator fans shaking their heads in confusion and despair. However, in announcing in such a public fashion that he has long been suffering, silently, from stress-related symptoms related to his high-powered job, coach Meyer performed a public service. Stress has been called the “silent killer” precisely because many people who suffer physical symptoms, like chest pains, as a result of tension-related factors in their jobs or personal lives tend to ignore them. But stress too long ignored can and does lead to a host of serious physical and mental illnesses that may ultimately be life-threatening.As a recent New York Times piece noted “Many people are afraid of being perceived as selfish if they engage in stress-reducing activities that benefit only themselves. The truth is that self-sacrifice (in the form of not reducing one's stress) may be inappropriate and even damaging, if the person making the sacrifice is unhappy, angry or physically unwell.”It took courage for a football coach who is literally at the top of his game to admit to the world that he has been suffering silently. And it took resolve to make the decision to at least step down temporarily from what many would consider a “dream job” in order to gain control of the stress that threatened to ruin his personal life and physical well-being.We wish Urban Meyer the best. We hope that other Americans who may be suffering stress silently heard his message and will act accordingly.